Serena Williams is returning to Wimbledon singles but publicly slammed the tournament’s anti-doping system.
The 44-year-old champion will compete in women’s singles at Wimbledon for the first time since 2022 as a wild card entrant. She is also reuniting with Venus Williams in doubles, their first time playing together in that event at the tournament since 2016.
Serena revealed that she had to re-enter the anti-doping pool, which requires players to submit daily whereabouts information for possible no-notice testing. On Sunday, Serena said the process has been frustrating while balancing work and motherhood.
“It’s grueling,” she said. “They changed the rules now. I didn’t know some of the rules. So apparently if you miss a test outside of your window, it still counts as missed. I’m like, I guess I can’t go pick up my kids.”
Serena said she supports testing, but took issue with how the system works for players with busy lives.
“That was a big reason why I didn’t want to come back either because it’s just so hard,” she said. “My life is busy, I run a company, I run a VC company, I travel the world. I have children.”
The International Tennis Integrity Agency responded that a missed test outside a player’s assigned hour “is not considered a strike.”
“There have been no changes to the whereabouts rules in the last few years,” the agency said.